Govt plans to hike compensation for victims of violence

New Delhi, Aug 9: Government is considering raising the compensation amount for families of security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today.

During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Singh said he was of the view that the compensation should be increased and a proposal in this regard would be taken up through the Union Cabinet.

He said the government is considering to increase the compensation for security personnel and civilians killed in extremist violence.

There is already a scheme for providing assistance to civilian victims of terrorist/communal/naxal violence under which Rs three lakh financial assistance is given for death or permanent incapacitation to the family of civilian victims.

This is subject to the condition that no employment has been provided to any of the family members of the victim. State governments have their own compensation policy for the families of civilians and state police killed in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence, Singh said.

Around Rs 4.26 crore was reimbursed to 10 states in 2014-15 under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme to LWE affected states for ex-gratia compensation to security personnel and civilians.

Under the SRE scheme, the Centre reimburses ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the family of civilian and Rs 3 lakh to family of security personnel killed in LWE violence.

"An ex-gratia compensation of Rs 15 lakh is paid to the next of kin of personnel of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) killed in maoist violence," Singh said.